The Belly Up Tavern In Solana Beach, CA And The Return Of Small Venues

In March 2020 I wrote about the last show I’d seen one week prior to the pandemic shut down. It was David Bowie’s band playing Diamond Dogs and Ziggy Stardust. Although the recent news has been all about Taylor Swift and the difficulty of ticket acquisition, the story which should be followed is how small venues like the Belly Up Tavern managed through an extended period of zero activity, then rebounded once the world reopened.

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For most people, music is not something they see often in a stadium or arena. It’s local, in a favorite bar close to home or a small club. The Belly Up is a classic example of a small venue. It opened in 1974 within a restored Quonset hut and has been a central hub of the community ever since. Inside there are a combination of seated and standing areas holding a maximum of 600 people, plus two separate bars which easily handle the task of keeping the crowd lubricated.

The Belly Up has developed such a reputation that private shows have been held there with The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jimmy Buffet, Foo Fighters, Lady Gaga and others over the years. Meanwhile their reputation as a sterling facility attracts such quality acts that the management are about to start on February 3^rd, 2023 booking The Sound at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The Sound is a 1,900 capacity venue which will open with a show from Ziggy Marley, followed by shows from Steve Aoki and Big Gigantic.

More than anything, the Belly Up is central to the community of SolanaSOL
Beach. The shows draw a local crowd which often sell out the room. Just this week Donovan Frankenreiter played, reuniting his long-time band as Jara Harris returned to the fold after spending the better part of this year undergoing chemotherapy while he worked to beat a cancer diagnosis.

Frankenreiter is the kind of performer who consistently sells out the Belly Up. He’s a Hawaii based former professional surfer who spends seven months a year touring. His four-piece group has Frankenreiter on a 1949 Orpheum guitar, a bass player, a keyboardist and the aforementioned drummer. Together they played a set list that built upon itself melding the crowd together and raising the energy in the room on a linear path to the ultimate blowout conclusion. As often happens at the Belly Up people go to the show to be out for an evening with their friends, then leave with a new band or performer on the must see list. That’s the power of a well-run room and emblematic of what the Belly Up sets out to achieve nearly every night.

The pandemic was a terrible time for both musicians and venues. Live music has interdependencies. There is the need for performers to see an audience, and they in return to be in the room so they can experience the performance rather than simply observing it through a screen. There is also the need for a venue to have a draw to bring the people in, and the people arriving must not feel abandoned in the room. Venues like Belly Up create a warm room where there’s both music and a social aspect which makes the crowd trend more toward an extended family. Because venues know their audiences, acts repeat and many times the next time an artist returns, the crowd is similarly composed as those who were there for a prior performance return on the next loop through town.

Almost every significant venue is built upon the vision of the operator. That’s who ultimately sets the tone and assures continuity. For Belly Up, that person is Steve Goldberg who has been the managing partner since 2003. Goldberg, like his contemporaries makes sure the experience is consistent. Going to a big concert can be stressful navigating getting tickets, finding parking, and getting in or out of the venue alongside 15,000 people. There is no preplanning needed to get into a smaller room, other than buying the tickets when they go on sale for events which typically sell out.

Big shows look great on an Instagram feed, but they often do not feel like you were part of the event. A musical performance in a baseball stadium can be more like live radio than being in synch with the artist. Those who attend shows in smaller rooms tend to be more fully engaged. Sightlines are better, the sound is consistently good, and the possibility of actual human interaction is high. 2023 might be the year to venture more into the smaller rooms and catch up on being in the mix rather than overwhelmed by it.